56 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts, and Letters. 



renders science possible. Science deals with results, not ante- 

 cedents; and after having determined results, it is not author- 

 ized to affirm that one species has produced another by evolu- 

 tion, or has produced it at all. If there are agreements 

 between different organisms by which they are bn^ught into 

 relation, there are also differences by which they are discrimi- 

 nated, and these differences imply increments of force; and 

 to assert that one organism has evolved another is to deter- 

 mine not merely the presence of this new increment, but also 

 to determine its origin. Scientific investigation deals with 

 phenomena which give evidence to the senses of a transference, 

 of force from one form or from one manifestation to another. 

 Transference is not increase — an effect can be no more than 

 the evolution of what was potentially present in the cause ; it 

 cannot add to it. The origin of the force must be investi- 

 gated according to intellectual laws. 



It has been argued that a Supreme Intelligence in manifest- 

 ing his thought will, according to the necessary laws of ration- 

 al activity, pass from the universal and general to the particu- 

 lar and individual,, or from concepts involving few attributes 

 to those involving these and others; and that these steps in 

 the rational process must be represented in a corresponding 

 physical series; and that the communication of thought is con- 

 ditioned upon this physical representation. If the logical se- 

 ries comprises one thousand terms, each related to the preced- 

 ing according to logical law the physical series must com- 

 prise one thousand terms, each physically related in such 

 a manner as to reveal this law. As the highest generalization 

 comprises the fewest attributes, the concrete expression of this 

 idea will present the simplest possible physical form and the 

 least complexity of organization, and thus will present the low- 

 est types of life ; and as the individual comprises the greatest 

 number of attributes, its concrete expression will present the 

 greatest complexity, and consequently the highest type of life. 



